Stamford’s Director of Administration Departs, Economic Development Head Steps into Interim Dual Role
Ben Barnes has left the City of Stamford for Charter Oak Communities
STAMFORD — Stamford’s Director of Administration Ben Barnes has officially departed his role at the City of Stamford to become Chief of Staff for Charter Oak Communities — the largest public housing provider in the city. His final day was Jan. 9, according to a city official.
“Under Ben’s leadership, he streamlined the audit process and brought it up-to-date, maintained our city’s Triple A bond rating, completed the Oracle implementation, and set the foundation for increased coordination of pension management for our city’s pension boards,” said Mayor Caroline Simmons in an emailed statement to all city employees on December 4, 2025.
Simmons tapped current Director of Economic Development Leah Kagan to serve as the Interim Director of Administration while keeping her role in economic development. Kagan has a background in fundraising and development for nonprofit organizations such as Americares, Planned Parenthood and the Anti-Defamation League. She served as Simmons’ treasurer for both mayoral campaigns in 2021 and 2025.
Modernization efforts tackle decades of technical debt with audit delays
The Department of Administration primarily oversees the financials of the City of Stamford — including tax collection, the Office of Policy and Management, grants, property assessment, and risk management. All of these departments and functions work off of a singular financial reporting program.
For decades, Stamford’s financial infrastructure relied on “green screen,” a technology that debuted in the 1970s. The technology had a number of technical and feature limitations. For example, green screen did not respond to mouse inputs and departments had limited ability to quickly assess how much of their budget they had spent for the year.
In 2020, Stamford was one of four cities in the United States that still used “green screen.” Mayor David Martin proposed an initiative to replace the software which began in 2021. The City announced it would switch to Oracle which is “still underway and in the final stages” according to a city official.
Barnes referenced the transition to Oracle as a contributing factor to the City of Stamford’s multiple delayed audits over the past several years. Barnes said in 2025 the City had spent more than $1M for professional services related to the audit. These audits occurred while the City of Stamford reported 6 straight years of double-digit surpluses between 2018 and 2024 — including a peak $30M surplus in FY2023-2024.
A city official told Feather Ruffler the City of Stamford is still finalizing its FY2024 audit and will complete its FY2025 audit by Summer 2026.
Requests for comment sent to Barnes and Kagan were not returned by Monday, Jan. 12.